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There are many theories of the particularly bad turn North South relations have taken over the last two years, from the obvious (the missile and nuclear tests, the sinking of the Cheonan, the shelling of Yeonpyeong-do), to the “blame the victim” school (it’s LMB’s fault), to the more subtle (its all a complex game on [...]
The most recent issue of Good Friends North Korea Today highlights the growth of prostitution in North Korea. Good Friends first started covering this story aggressively during the acute food shortages of early 2008, and has cast the issue in terms of the desperation and survival strategies of poor women. But the accounts provided suggest [...]
In 2005, the Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI) created the Korean Peninsula Security Index (KPSI) in order to provide “an objective assessment of the security situations on the Korean peninsula on a quarterly basis.” Well, sort of. The index is based on a survey of forty experts in what might be called the Five Parties–South [...]
Scanning Good Friends North Korea Today No. 404 it hit me that these stories had real cinematic possibilities. Some Hallyu remake possibilities: New Jack City (1991). Ice-T begins his transition from being the scourge of cops to playing on TV; Wesley Snipes plays a criminal in the movies before becoming one in real life; Chris [...]
John Lee from Uri Tours which organizes trips to North Korea wrote to inform me about a golf event to be held in Pyongyang on Oct. 1 – Oct. 8. “This week long event is open to any level player and is a fun way to see North Korea and create an opportunity for cultural [...]
We are always interested in glimpses of North Korean cultural life, whether from inside the country or from defectors outside of it, some who have proven wonderfully edgy. The North Korea Economy Watch, an incredibly useful site run by Curtis Melvin, recently posted a few You Tube videos of sand art from the Mansudae Art [...]
KCNA has announced that elections for local People’s Committees will be held 24 July. According to the North Korean constitution such elections are to be held every four years, and insofar as the last elections were in June 2007, these would be more or less according to schedule. This could be interpreted as a sign [...]
China-DPRK economic cooperation is all the rage. Whether it is sound and fury signifying nothing remains to be seen. Yonhap reports that the two countries have (finally) begun the eminently sensible project of paving the road from Hunchun to Rason (nee Rajin-Sonbong). China-DPRK trade has a noticeable seasonal pattern, dropping quite significantly during the winter months when the [...]
We pass along this announcement from Suzanne Scholte as a public service: “Please find below a press release announcing the next International Protest to Save North Korean Refugees slated for 12:00 noon, Thursday, September 22, 2011. While more and more information is getting into North Korea and more and more people are learning about the human rights conditions there, the [...]
The recent confrontation with a North Korean vessel suspected of transporting missile components to Burma has once again raised the issue of what the US can and can’t do on the high seas, both legally and politically. First, here is the little we know about the case drawn from a variety of news sources, including [...]
